


Showtime

by alexisriversong



Series: Let's write Sherlock (challenge 15) [2]
Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Post-Season/Series 03 Fix-It, got out of my hands sorry, it is a bit, this was supposed to be about an old flame
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-19
Updated: 2014-09-19
Packaged: 2018-02-18 01:17:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,932
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2329919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alexisriversong/pseuds/alexisriversong
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John is clever and never believed Sherlock was dead, he asks two old friends to help him make Sherlock return...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Showtime

**Author's Note:**

> Second work for Let's write Sherlock challenge 15 the prompt said "An old flame" I think it didn' come quite as imagined...
> 
> I'm Italian sorry for any mistakes this is un betaed and a bit OOC (a lot)
> 
> This was the prompt I liked less of the card I chose but I wanted to do the others so here you have...

John Watson was not stupid, he wasn’t a bad actor either, he had managed to convince everyone that he thought Sherlock was dead, he had convinced even Sherlock and Mycroft. At the beginning, when Sherlock had jumped, John had thought it was for real. His first reaction had actually been genuine. 

For much that Sherlock wanted to believe he wasn’t, John really was really good at his work, he was a good doctor and knew a lot of things about medicine and he knew perfectly well that anyone could stop his pulse in so many different ways. He had noticed that Sherlock was not dead almost immediately after he had been carried away but had the mind to keep fighting those who were holding him back and fake shock. It was obvious from the blood pulsing on his neck and the bulge under the armpit where he had positioned a stone to block his pulse. 

“It’s just a trick, it’s just a magic trick” Sherlock had said on the rooftop. A very good trick indeed, everyone would have believed that he was dead, everyone had believed it, but he knew he was not everyone, he had been around Sherlock for a while and he had learned a lot. He had even begun to create a small Mind Palace on his own. It was more something like a replica of 221B than a real actual Palace but it contained everything he absolutely didn’t want to forget.

It wasn’t too hard to fake his shock and made everyone believe that Sherlock was dead. He had just thought his best friend had just jumped from a rooftop. He didn’t question even for a second that he had to keep mourning him. Probably the reason why he had jumped was that there was someone observing him and the only reason he had jumped in front of John would be that there was someone following all of his friends as well. 

John never tried to contact Sherlock during the years he was away, he just left 221B, he couldn’t lie to Mrs Hudson as well as everyone else, she might be in trouble too, after all, she was Sherlock’s friend too. He knew what to do next.

He punched Mycroft in the face as soon as he saw him. It was his fault if Sherlock had to fake his dead in the first place. He had leaked all the information to Moriarty. He was the reason he had to lie to everyone. He didn’t need the British Government to know he knew.

The hardest thing was going to the funeral, he had to do a speech and cry. He had been so worried about not being able to be believable. But at the end it was easier than he had imagined, probably Sherlock wouldn’t come back at all. He was probably on some sort of suicide mission to save his friends from Moriarty’s web after all. His sadness was real. 

He hid for a long time, everyone supposed he was mourning, he had made sure to remove every single webcam in his new flat so no one would know what he really was doing. He refused to talk to everyone for most of the first year that Sherlock was away. 

In secret he had been leaving the flat every night to meet with the homeless network. They helped him with his “I believe in Sherlock Holmes” campaign to help his friend in his mission and clean his reputation. 

He knew Sherlock was ok. He had read the newspapers, he knew that Anderson had gone mad and created a Sherlock fanclub, most of the news they had gathered were obviously about Sherlock, not that he was going to tell them that. It was all Anderson and Donovan’s fault if the suspicions about his friend had spread so fast in the first place. The fanclub was sometimes helpful though, they helped to share his campaign on all the social networks without even knowing where it all started.

After a year of hiding he decided he had mourned long enough and had to go back to work. During his year in solitude he had had the time to think about what to do when Sherlock came back, if he came back. He wasn’t even able to think about not seeing the man again. John had known he was bisexual from the first day in the army. He denied to be gay because he had never actually acted on his feelings but that didn’t mean he didn’t accept that he was attracted also by man.

Apparently it was one special category of man he was attracted to. When he had joined the army, his Colonel was a very handsome man, he was tall and slim and strong under his uniform. The man was also a puzzle, he was quiet about himself, never wanted to talk about his life outside the army. He was a mystery.

John apparently loved mysterious man, Sherlock was the prof of it. The two man were very similar and very different at the same time. Both of them were also unattainable and didn’t appreciate emotions. John had fell in love with Colonel Sholto after two weeks of being under his command. It had been so new to feel such emotions for a man that he had never done anything about his feelings then. 

After meeting Sherlock he had understood that what he had felt for the Colonel hadn’t been love, his longest relationship with a woman hadn’t been love either. The real love was what he felt for Sherlock Holmes and he was going to get it back.

John had a plan. It was a clever plan. He had just to make a couple of calls and everything would get back to normal. He decided that the first thing to do was to go back to work. He called Sarah and asked if he could have a couple of shifts at the clinic. Not that he needed the money. Sherlock had left him everything and he was now very rich. He just needed to prove to everyone that he was moving on. 

Sarah gave him two shifts every week. It was a good start. He went to the morgue and asked Molly if she needed help. She looked guilty. John had known someone had to falsify the death certificate so Molly must know about Sherlock. He feigned ignorance and worked on stitching up the corpse Molly had asked him to help with. 

Greg had been suspended during the first few months since Sherlock suicide, John had known everything from the news and also from the homeless in exchange of food and clothes. Thanks to the campaign that John had started he had been able to have his work and reputation reinstated sooner than expected.

The first two months of work passed without any problem and soon enough everyone stopped to worry too much about his health. Working in the morgue he had the occasion to sneak around files and leak information to the homeless so that the police could have some anonymous tips about cases related to Moriarty’s web. He was helping Sherlock and probably Mycroft too. 

He met the older Holmes brother after three months of work. Mycroft wanted to see if he was ok and offered him a case. He knew it would happen. He had planned it. He was playing everyone like chess pieces. He congratulated himself silently and refused the offer. 

Mycroft came back every week after that. After a month John decided to accept. He couldn’t look so eager or he would have been exposed. Like he thought the first case he had been assigned was that of a drug dealer that worked for Moriarty in Tibet, he helped a mysterious agent to infiltrate in a temple. He had the feeling that the agent was Sherlock, he knew it was him. 

Helping Sherlock without leaving London was the best part of his day. He suggested military techniques and wrote detailed descriptions of medical treatments to treat the injuries that were inevitable during the missions. He learned that Sherlock had needed to kill people during his assaults to Moriarty’s web. That had always been his area. After two months like this he couldn’t keep going. Mycroft was beginning to get suspicious, he had to show him he didn’t need the adrenaline, he had to show him that he had no suspicion about the identity of the man he had been helping.

So he made a call. He called Colonel Sholto and Mary Morstan, the two people outside of Sherlock who he had thought he was in love with. 

When Sholto arrived at his home he knew that he had never loved him very much, it wasn’t going to be easy to make everyone believe he was in a relationship with him. It would never work. Mary was another thing. Everyone knew that he loved women so it wasn’t going to be difficult to make everyone believe he was in love with her and had moved on. 

He knew there was only one way for Sherlock to come back and it was to finish his work dismantling Moriarty’s web and do it soon. He needed a reason to come back. John knew that there was something that made Sherlock crazy with jealousy. It was John going on a date. He had enjoyed toying with Sherlock, there was a reason he went on all the dates he went to. He wanted to make Sherlock jealous. He hoped that the genius would understand his own feelings then. Considering that he had jumped from a rooftop to save him, John supposed that he had finally understood.

Sherlock was in love with John so John had to tease him outside of his hiding place and clean his reputation once for all. 

It was easy to talk to Mary, she was fun and always happy. Sholto had accepted to be his new best friend. It wasn’t easy to fake that it was completely natural for him to be with the Colonel like he was with Sherlock. They were living together as flatmates. Sholto had never been good in social conditions, he loved to be on his own. It was easy to look at him like he looked at Sherlock, with awe and desire. The Colonel was still a handsome man after all. 

To the outside eyes it looked like John had continued to live his life and was now happy again. Mary was his new girlfriend and Sholto his new best friend. He also separated himself from Mycroft again. He told him he had to change life completely. He helped Sholto with some military issues he had been asked to help with and everything looked fine. 

In reality, John was still working at night with the homeless and some reporter that wanted the real story of Sherlock Holmes. The article that was going to discharge his friend once and for all was almost ready. For what John had learned with his last contact with Mycroft, the agent he had been helping was heading to Serbia to kill the last one of the Moriarty’s network. His name was Sebastian Moran and for what John had been able to deduce, he had been the one designed to kill him. 

Mary and Sholto didn’t know about Sherlock, all they knew was that John needed a favor and both of them owned him one. 

When John realized he was being followed he decided that Sherlock’s last plan hadn’t worked and now Moran knew that he was alive, he was going to try and finish his work. John had to use plan B after all. 

John kept an eye out for Moran and prepared the final part of his plan. He said to the journalist to publish his story on the papers. A file with all the proof of Sherlock’s innocence was left at New Scotland yard and his friend’s reputation was completely reinstated. Afterwards, he went to a jewelry and bought a ring. It was just a simple silver band, nothing too expansive but beautiful nonetheless. He invited Mary to dinner at Angelo’s and waited. His gun safely tucked in a shoulder holster under his jacket. The other costumers were all members of the homeless network and they were enjoying the free meal.

As expected Sherlock appeared in the middle of dinner, the outfit was what was unexpected. Really? A waiter? That was so childish. John wanted to punch the bastard in the face for the way he had come back and at the same time he wanted to kiss him just right there. John glanced at Mary that was quickly understanding everything and smiling. She had left him because he had been pining for Sholto at the time and she was the first one to point out to him that he was bisexual. She was enjoying the fact of being right for once. 

John saw the red dot he was waiting for, pushed Sherlock to the floor saving him from a shot in the chest. He grabbed his gun and shot the sniper before he could even realize what had happened. He grabbed the phone and dialed Mycroft number. 

“I believe you will find Moran’s body on the rooftop across the street from Angelo’s restaurant. No one has seen who shot him in here so you will have no witnesses of his death. I hope next time you will not hide something of this magnitude from me. As you may have noticed from today’s newspapers and from a file sent to NSY, your brother has been cleared of any accuse in his behalf. Now I’ve got something serious to do, bye” he closed the line before Mycroft could even answer.

Sherlock was staring at him with awe. “You knew” John nodded “When did you figure it out?” 

“A stone under the arm? Really Sherlock? I’m a doctor I saw the pulse on your neck” Sherlock was almost gaping. John had known from the very beginning then.

“You knew from the beginning and you acted? All this time? For two years?” John looked at him with a smug half grin. Sherlock was still on the floor and for once John could look at him from the high. 

“I acted and I played with you and your brother and the bloody city for two years Sherlock. You were solving mysteries in Tibet, Siberia, America and Syria and I was here cleaning your reputation. Helping your brother with his ‘secret agent’ and trying to act normal so as not get shot and get all the others shot as well”

“You knew about the others?” 

“I wasn’t really sure about that actually. I supposed that you would fake your death only if someone was in danger and knowing you there are just a few people who you would die for. Me, Mrs Hudson, Greg and probably also Molly but I suppose she was your accomplice so she wasn’t one of the most probable”

“I can’t believe that you tricked everyone, I can’t believe that you tricked me and Mycroft… You are a genius John!” That made the doctor laugh and grin widely. 

“Such an incredulous tone Sherlock, I’m not as stupid as you think… I’ve got the best teacher after all” Sherlock smiled at him, it was his real smile not the fake one he gave everyone else, it was John’s smile and it made him realize how much he had missed the idiotic genius. “As I said to your brother I have more important things to do right now though…” He grabbed the ring box and Sherlock panicked. 

“No! Wait John you can’t marry that woman!” He pointed at Mary. She laughed at him and grinned. 

“And why can’t he, uhm?” she asked feigning ignorance. 

“Because I came back! You don’t need the replacements anymore John” he looked like a child who didn’t want to share his toys. It probably was the best love declaration he was going to get from him.

Sholto had been at a table near them ready with another gun to help John in case he needed it. He hadn’t, so he was now free to go back to his life away from the city where he could help some of the associations that helped soldiers injured in war. He decided that he could need a nurse. He got up and offered his hand to Mary. 

“I’m going to travel and help injured soldiers. A nurse could be helpful” Mary smiled and got up grabbing the Colonel’s hand. They had been playing with each other for all the time they had been helping John and the doctor was happy to know they finally were going somewhere.

“Who am I to refuse such interesting offer?” She said cheekily, she run to John, kissed him on the cheek and left waving goodbye to everyone.

Sherlock was puzzled. For once the great Sherlock Holmes wasn’t following what was happening. John took pity of him and opened the ringbox and gave it to him. 

Sherlock observed the ring with questioning eyes, deducing everything about it. After a second he looked at John. “This ring is for a man” 

“Yes, it is”

“It’s my size” 

“Clever deduction Sherlock” John was beginning to become a bit embarrassed by the situation. It was the first time Sherlock was slow with something, but Sherlock had always been slow regarding emotions and probably he wasn’t expecting that. They hadn’t even kissed yet and John was already asking him to marry him. After two years of Sherlock being thought dead by everyone it was obvious he didn’t understand at first maybe he had to be even more clear…

“Yes” 

“What did you just say?” 

“You know how I hate to repeat myself”

“You idiot! Come here!” he opened his arms and found himself with an armful of Consulting Detective. He also found himself being clumsily kissed by said Detective on the floor of the restaurant. Angelo coughed a bit to get their attention. 

“You probably would like to get a bit more privacy”

Sherlock got up suddenly from the floor and John followed suit muttering an embarrassed excuse and holding the ringbox in his hand. 

John grabbed his frie- fiancé from the jacket sleeve and leaded him to Baker Street. He had asked Mrs Hudson to have the apartment cleaned. She had answered that she was not the housekeeper but she had been too happy about the news about Sherlock not being dead and probably coming back that she hadn’t complained so much. She was happy to have their boys back.

John and Sherlock run up the stairs as fast as they could and as soon as they were behind the doors of 221B, John pushed the detective against the door and proceeded to show him how to kiss properly. He pressed his hands between black curls and his lips to soft plush ones and proceeded to snog him properly.

It wasn’t often that Sherlock was out of his depth with something that someone did, but John was the exception to that. He hadn’t even questioned the fact that John had planned everything so he could come back and he could propose. They hadn’t even kissed before that night and he didn’t care at all. 

He had thought how would it feel. The press of John’s lips, his tongue in his mouth where all that Sherlock had been able to think about in his nights alone during the two years he had been away. He had wanted to kiss John since he had shot the cabbie in their very first day together but it was already too late then. He had told John just a few hours before that he was married to his work he couldn’t change his mind then.

Now, after being away from each other for such a long time, after thinking that John had moved on and was going to get married to that woman, after thinking he had lost him again after just having found him again, after almost dying in Syria. That line of thought made him realize that John had stopped kissing him and was calling his name. 

Sherlock stared at John embarrassed for being carried away by his thoughts. He was a deep shade of pink. John just smiled at him and kissed him softly on the lips again.

“Have you ever done this Sherlock?” The detective slowly shook his head, was John going to change his mind knowing Sherlock was a virgin? He hoped not. He felt insecure about everything sex related and so he had no idea what to say. “I love leaving you speechless but at the moment I need to know what you want Sherlock” Sherlock looked at him and John let him deduce him. 

John was concerned about something, he was concerned that Sherlock wouldn’t be interested in sex or in a relationship, he was concerned that Sherlock had accepted to marry him because he thought that if he didn’t he wouldn’t have John back. He thought Sherlock wasn’t in love with him, that he was still thinking that he was married to his work.

“Oh! John, I love you. As much as I despise sentiment I can’t hide it. I said yes to your proposal because I really want to marry you not because of pity or something like that and I’m not asexual but I’ve always found the practice of sexual stimulation boring and dull, even by myself, then you came into my life and everything changed and I didn’t know and it was difficult and I had too many sentiments and couldn’t handle them. John you are my heart, Moriarty wanted to kill you to burn my heart and I had to jump and I missed you and you knew and I…” His rumbling was stopped by John’s lips on his own. Apparently he was wrong about the declaration of love thing.

“I know Sherlock…” He opened the box containing the ring in his hand and removed the silver band from it. He took Sherlock’s hand and placed the ring on the detective’s left hand ring finger. “I love you Sherlock, I’m never let you go again. Next time you try to foul me think about this two years and about how you felt on your own and how I felt would be just the same but a bit more full of worry. Then decide well and don’t try to foul me again” Sherlock smiled down at John and observed his ring. 

“It’s beautiful John…” he was clearly thinking about the ring and hadn’t heard John’s words but he was gently reassured when Sherlock added “…and I won’t try to foul you again, promise” 

John smiled held Sherlock’s hand and placed a kiss on the ring staring up at the gorgeous man in front of him. Black ringlets framing sharp cheekbones, Sherlock had lose weight again and John will had to remedy but it wasn’t the moment. He moved closer to the detective and hugged him tight. Sherlock leaned in the warmth of John’s body and pressed a kiss on John’s blond/gray hair. 

John pressed a kiss on Sherlock’s neck and the detective shivered in expectation. “Why don’t you let me show you how it is to have a proper sexual relationship? I promise it won’t be boring”

Sherlock had never run faster than he did to reach the bedroom, John running after him. They both were very glad the Moriarty’s nightmare was finished.

**Author's Note:**

> Usual disclaimers that I don't own anything apart my imagination
> 
> Kudos and comments always appreciated...


End file.
